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Excel Entertainment will produce abundant stories under its banner for Netflix users in 190 countries. For all Netflix buffs out there, Netflix has announced a strategic multi-year partnership with Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar’s Excel Entertainment on Wednesday. Excel Entertainment has given evergreen classics and trendsetters movies like  Dil Chahta Hai along with Rock On, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Lakshya, Toofaan and the Don franchise. Excel Entertainment will produce a variety of stories under its series banner Excel Media & Entertainment for Netflix members in over 190 countries commencing with two projects tentatively titled Dabba Cartel and Queen of the Hill. Dabba Cartel is a story of five housewives who run a high stakes secret cartel. Style, ambition, love, friendship and betrayal set in the backdrop of jazz rich 1960s Mumbai;Queen of the Hillchronicles the dynamic relationship between two ambitious women that will change the city forever. Monika Shergill, Vice President, Content, Netflix India, said, “We are excited to join hands with Excel Entertainment, one of India’s path-breaking creative studios. They have continuously pushed the boundaries of entertainment and given us stories that have stood the test of time. We are delighted to welcome them to Netflix.” Ritesh Sidhwani & Farhan Akhtar, Producers of Excel Entertainment,said,“Our partnership with Netflix marks a new global chapter for Excel Entertainment after 20 eventful years in storytelling. We’re excited with the opportunity to create a variety of extraordinary stories to entertain people in India and around the world. We are thrilled to begin this next chapter with Netflix.” Source: The news has been published from National Herald with a few edits from the ArdorComm News Network Team.

It has been an occasion of double celebration for India as two medals come home. Mariyappan Thangavelu and Sharad Kumar have won silver and bronze medals, in the high jump event at the ongoing Paralympics. Mariyaapan Thangavala bagged silver after making a mark of 1.86m, in the high jump, with that it is the second Paralympic medal for him after bagging a gold in Rio Olympic 2016. On the other hand, Sharad Kumar bagged a bronze in the high jump with a mark of 1.83m. Gold was clinched by Sam Grewe of the United States of America, after creating a benchmark of 1.88m in his third attempt. Nevertheless, another India and Rio bronze medal winner Varun Singh Bhati finished with the seventh position, with a mark of 1.77 m in the high jump. Source: hindustantimes.com

India is a country that prides itself upon its traditions, culture, art, scenic beauty and much more.Many states in India witness a high frequency of tourists from various parts of the world. Uttarakhandis one such state that is a mix of all good things combined.Recently, Uttarakhand’s CM announced Pawandeep Rajan, Indian Idol 12 winner as the art, tourism andculture brand ambassador. The singing sensation from Uttarakhand competed in a nine-month-longshow to win the trophy at the end. As a reward, he took a 25lakh cheque and a Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire home. Now, in a new win, he wasannounced as Uttarakhand’s art and tourism brand ambassador by CM Pushkar Singh Dhami. They metin Dehradun at the CM’s residence where he has rewarded the title.On the topic, CM Pushkar Singh Dhami tweeted, “संगीत की दुनिया में “देवभूमि” का मान बढ़ाने वाले@RajanPawandeep को हमारी सरकार ने कला, पर्यटन और संस्कृति में उत्तराखण्ड का ब्रांड एम्बेसडर बनाने कानिर्णय लिया है। पवनदीप राजन ने सामान्य स्थितियों से उठकर अपनी प्रतिभा से देश-दुनिया में प्रदेश का नामरोशन किया है। Pawandeep’s joy was also shared by famous dancer Raghav Juyal who also hails from Uttarakhand. Heshared the pictures on Instagram from his account extending his congratulations.

PTI: Biographical drama “Thalaivii”, based on the life of actor and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalithaa, is set to release theatrically on September 10. The multilingual film, featuring Kangana Ranaut in the lead, was earlier scheduled to release in April but was pushed to later due to the second wave of the Coronavirus pandemic in the country. Zee Studios posted the film’s poster along with its new release date on its official Instagram page. “With a personality queen size, Jayalalithaa’s story has always belonged to the big screens! Embark on her inspiring journey from being a cine star to becoming one of the most influential CMs in theatres near you on 10th September,” the caption read. Directed by Vijay and written by KV Vijayendra Prasad, “Thalaivii” also stars Arvind Swami, Madhoo, Prakash Raj, Jisshu Sengupta, Bhagyashree, and Poorna. Apart from “Thalaivii”, Ranaut will also be seen in action film “Dhaakad” and “Tejas”. Source: The article has been published from a syndicated feed and The Hindu with a few edits by ArdorComm News Network.

The OTT platform so far became the primary source of entertainment, especially within the mobile-first market like India. Therefore, various OTTs are moreover interested in rolling out family-friendly content, as the family audience is believed to be forming a major part of the viewership and audience market. The OTT platforms are more focused on bringing back the family entertainment time from normal TV channels to streaming channels. In this phase historical fictions, biopics of national heroes, mythology, and comedy are segments where attempt to deliver OTT content that can include family and children together as the viewer is being worked on. To look at the recent examples in this phase we can see Disney+Hotstar bringing The Empire and SonyLIV is ready to deliver the Biopic titled Rocket Boys on Homi Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai. On the other hand, Netflix which noticed that more than 60% of its subscribers are watching kids and family content per month, will be all set to release over 50 original movies and shows targeted at the family and kids segment this year.  Source: livemint.com

New Delhi: Aditya Birla Group-owned content studio Applause Entertainment on Tuesday announced an exclusive partnership with India’s iconic comics Amar Chitra Katha marking its foray into animation content. As a part of the collaboration, the studio has acquired the license to the Amar Chitra Katha’s catalogue comprising more than 400 titles which will be developed and produced into animated content. So far Applause has produced and released 25 original series such as Scam 1992, Criminal Justice, City of Dreams, Undekhi, Mind the Malhotras and Hostages, among others, that have streamed on Disney+Hotstar, Amazon Prime, SonyLIV, Netflix and MX Player. Amar Chitra Katha titles cut across genres such as epics and mythology, history, fables and humour, stories of bravehearts and visionaries. Founded in 1967 by the legendary Anant Pai, Amar Chitra Katha has been a pioneer in comic book storytelling for children and is a cultural phenomenon in India. “Like millions of other people, I have grown up reading these comics and as a child, imagined them with dynamic visuals and dramatic sound and action. This is our opportunity to realize that dream. This partnership is also a small step towards helping export Indian culture by taking a unique and deep-rooted cultural brand like Amar Chitra Katha to screens across the globe,” Sameer Nair, CEO, Applause Entertainment said in a statement. In the recent past, Amar Chitra Katha has forayed into the digital space with all its books available on the Amar Chitra Katha app, besides remaining present on multiple digital platforms such as Alexa, YouTube and others. Preeti Vyas, president and CEO, Amar Chitra Katha said the partnership with Applause Entertainment would help to take its rich storytelling heritage to Indian and global audiences through animation. “While we continue to keep our founder, Anant Pai’s dream alive by telling new stories and creating fresh content in print and digital formats, we are also keen on presenting our stories in an animated avatar. We are confident that the (Applause) team, by adapting our stories to animation will help in providing the new and future generations of Indians a crucial link to our past,” Vyas added. Source: Mint

Balaji Telefilms said the Covid-19 lockdown brought the world towards a new era of digitalization. This gave a supportive twist to the OTT platform as the main source of entertainment. Keeping the huge scope in mind, Balaji telefilms is all set to persuade and invest in the original content, with providing an affordable subscription rate.  While the company intends to invest in more original content, it also wishes to focus on delivering content serving various audience genres to ensure having something for all on the platter.  While a success rate of release of movies has been witnessed on OTT. The OTT platforms are also aiming towards providing a space of performance for small-budget deep content releases.  The speed with which OTT platforms have got subscriptions by audiences is commendable. A new establishment of the entertainment industry has been witnessed. The OTT platforms are all set to revolutionize the ways of entertainment consumption habits for people. Thus, having a huge space to experiment with content and have something for all. Source: theeconomictimes.com

New Delhi: The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) said that, BTech students can take admission to other branches of Engineering, in addition to their main course, through lateral entry. The council said it was receiving requests from students regarding admission to an additional BTech course through lateral entry. “The proposal was placed before the AICTE Executive Committee…and EC opined that technical universities can facilitate such students to take admission to BTech /BE by allowing them to get admission at appropriate level of BTech programme in another discipline/branch of Engineering,” the AICTE said. The council mentioned that the students do not need to study the courses they have already studied in their first discipline when they take admission to the additional programme. “The Executive Committee approved the exemption from pursuing courses already done in the first discipline of BTech programme and such students be appropriately guided to complete other requirements of the second discipline. As there is a practical component involved, students will be required to take admission in an institution/college as a regular student and the concerned university will ensure this and make necessary provision in their statutes accordingly.” The AICTE has also said the additional degree course will be completed in two to three years, “without compromising on the credit requirements in core discipline and attainment of learning outcomes of the new programme.” They have also asked institutions to make necessary changes to their statute and to take appropriate steps to provide additional courses to BTech students. Source: Careers360

Times Network expanded its global trademark by launching TIMES NOW, Zoom, Times Now, Navbharat in The UK, USA and Europe in collaboration with an emerging California based media technology company, DistroScale.  DistroTv is a free, ad-supported and independent platform available on an international scale that delivers world-class video content from their clients wide-ranging from different regions.  Times Network is a part of The Times Group which is, currently one of India’s most influential and leading media conglomerates. Established in 1838 in Mumbai, it was previously an English language-based channel that was the origin of many channels including Romedy NOW, MN+, MNX HD and news channels including Times NOW.  Recently they launched their first Hindi language based channel called Navbharat with an impactful motto Aab Badlega Bharat, Banega Navbharat. The response received was astounding.  Navbharat is one of the most propelling Hindi news channels. At the beginning of this channel, MK Anand specified that they are not in the race for gaining TRP instead they want to focus on giving unbiased and knowledgeable content for their audience.  This is a clear message for evolution and change in India. The expansion of Times Network in different countries will provide ‘desi news’ content from home to Indian and foreign viewers living overseas.

India’s video over the top (OTT) market is expected to touch USD 12.5 Billion by 2035, from USD 1.5 billion in 2021 based on access to better networks, digital connectivity, and smartphones, according to areport by RBSA Advisory. The report highlighted that the next wave of growth in the OTT market will be contributed to front tier II, III, and IV cities and the Indian language speaking population. OTT industry is ambitious towards aggressive growth, with the help of a better network, digital connectivity, and smartphones. OTT platforms are noted to have a daily basis increase in the number of subscribers. Apart from the top players like Disney+Hotstar, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video, several local OTT platforms players can beseen gaining enough attraction from the customers. Various local players like SonyLiv, Voot, Zee5, ErosNow,Hoichoi, and Addatimes are gaining equal importance and delivering quality and viewer’s centric content. With the increase in day-to-day usage of these various OTT platforms there is no doubt in saying that the OTT platforms are becoming the new main source of entertainment with something on the menu for every demography. Thus, as per the report, the Indian video OTT market is predicted to grow from USD 1.5 billion in 2021 to USD 4 billion in 2025 and later to USD 12.5 billion by 2030. Along with that the audio OTT market with platforms like Jio Saavn, Spotify, Wynk Music is also expected to grow from USD 0.6 billion in 2021 to USD 1.1 billion in 2025 and further to USD 2.5 billion by 2030. Source: economictime.com